


A Friend In Love Is A Friend In Need

by LexiTheDoubleedge



Category: Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, Love Triangles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 07:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20849468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LexiTheDoubleedge/pseuds/LexiTheDoubleedge
Summary: If we saw a little more of ourselves in each other...If we were a little less willing to fight and a little more willing to talk...Could we find another way?(This story is an alternate take on the ending of the "Friendship" arc of the DDLC fancomic Doki Doki Literature Girls.)





	A Friend In Love Is A Friend In Need

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Doki Doki Literature Girls!](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/524027) by Yui. 

> This story is an alternate take on the ending of the "Friendship" arc of the DDLC fancomic Doki Doki Literature Girls, and -really- won't make sense if you haven't read it, and probably further along as well.
> 
> So remember that part where I mentioned the idea of writing "a serious Ako/Monika/Sayori story" in a context that meant I wasn't going to do that?
> 
> Yeah... after the multiple times where I'd said I wasn't going to write a Worm story idea (followed by me writing it), you'd think I'd have guessed the same pattern would apply to other sources too. The thing is, I felt kind of uncomfortable about this, because one of the messages of the original story (per Yui) is something I feel strongly about myself. It felt like I was kind of undermining that by going "But what if Ako and Sayori could be together (romantically) after all?"
> 
> But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there were other things going on in that arc that I wanted to give some extra attention to. I guess this isn't really a complete shipping fic so much as just a different take on things...

"What happened at your house, Ako?" Monika asked. "Did you hurt her?"

"... yes," Ako replied.

It was such a startlingly barefaced admission that Monika was momentarily stricken speechless by the surprise of it.

"I said something terrible to her, and... I need to apologize."

For a moment, Monika just stared wide-eyed at the other girl. There was a part of her that just wanted to crush the person who had just admitted to hurting her girlfriend, whether that meant just punching her out of the way or deleting her outright.

But something held her back.

She'd been trying to forget those words ever since she read them, but now they echoed in her memory more than ever.

_femalestudent.obj is a girl who is in the library and draws two flowers and a cat._

_femalestudent.obj is a girl who is in the library and draws two flowers and a cat._

_femalestudent.obj is a girl who is in the library and draws two flowers and a cat._

Ako seemed to cringe at the look on Monika's face.

_a girl who is in the library_

But she didn't say anything, just brushed a few tears from her eyes while waiting for the other girl to respond.

_draws two flowers and a cat_

"... You'd better come inside," Monika finally replied.

***

"Uuuhhh..." Sayori groaned. For a moment her eyes slipped open and she looked up at her girlfriend blearily. "... Moni?"

"Oh good, you're awake," Monika said.

"She doesn't look very awake," came a completely unexpected voice.

Sayori lurched upright. "A-Ako?"

And then... they just stared at each other. Monika sighed. If she stuck around for too much of this she was going to lose her mind. 

"I'm going to get started on dinner," she said before leaving the room. She got the impression that her presence was just making things more awkward. She trusted Sayori, and she'd decided to give Ako a chance, so she was going to be fair about it... even if she wasn't sure what outcome she was hoping for here.

Ako sat down on the edge of the bed, as far away from Sayori as she could manage. Every so often she'd glance over at the other girl, but looked away whenever the redhead's own worried gaze threatened to meet hers.

If Monika's departure had reduced the level of awkwardness in the room to any noticeable degree, you sure couldn't tell it by looking.

Finally, Ako managed to gather enough courage to speak up. "Sayori, I'm sorry. I never should have accused you of deliberately toying with me. I know you weren't really trying to hurt me, I just..." That was as far as Ako got before words failed her.

Sayori had turned away and hunched over a bit, flinching a few times as Ako spoke. "... But I was," she whispered.

"Sayori?!" Ako gasped.

"Hugging, cuddling, leaning on your shoulder during a movie... Even if they're all things I do with my friends, I knew that wasn't what you were getting from them, but I tried to pretend anyway. That's no better than deliberately hurting you, is it? I said I was trying to keep you from suffering, but it was really my own heart I was trying to protect..."

"Nn... that's not the same!"

Sayori sighed. "You know, sometimes it seems pretty hard to believe that Monika loves me... then I realized how you felt, and it just seemed like too much to handle." She looked up in surprise as she felt Ako's arms going around her, and felt herself blushing.

Ako noticed the look on Sayori's face and reddened a bit herself. "Sorry. It just looked like you needed a hug," she said as she made to pull away.

"It's fine," Sayori replied. "Because right now you're hugging me as a friend, right?"

Ako thought about it for a bit, before carefully nodding. "I guess I am." It wasn't that she was completely unaware of how close Sayori was, but... that wasn't what had meant the most to her at the moment. She'd just seen Sayori looking like she was hurting and wanted to comfort her.

"I'm sorry I didn't say something when I realized how you felt about me," Sayori said.

"I'm sorry I just assumed you knew instead of asking about it," Ako replied. Then she thought about what she'd just said. "Wait, did we just apologize to each other for basically the same thing? We're both gigantic dorks."

"Hey! Don't insult my best friend like that!" Sayori protested.

Ako laughed a bit, but pulled away. "I should probably leave now."

"Huh? Why?"

"You don't get it, Sayori? ... I'm still in love with you. Even in this awkward situation, I can still feel my heart racing just from being this close to you. If I stay, I'm sure I'll lose my composure again and do something to hurt you again. Now that I've apologized, I need to leave and not bother you again." Ako stood up and turned towards the door, and for a moment thought that was going to be the end of it...

... And then Sayori grabbed her hand.

"I don't like that." Sayori's voice was low, something halfway between a growl and a whimper, sounding more upset to Ako than she had even after the attempted kiss. "Just because I don't feel exactly the same way about you as you do about me, that means we have to give up on everything else that we share? There's definitely something wrong with that!"

Ako did her best to ignore the way Sayori had punctuated her last statement by jumping up and hugging her from behind. "Sayori, I..." It wasn't that she wanted to never see the woman she loved again, but... "What else can we do?"

"We'll do what we should have been doing all along. I'll tell you if you're getting too flirty, and you'll tell me if you're getting too flustered, and whatever happens we'll deal with it as friends."

"You're standing too close."

"Whoops!" Sayori let go and backed off.

Ako took a few deep breaths before responding. "But is that really okay? Maybe we can try to keep having fun together like we did before, but we'll both know that I still feel like this... Won't that be too awkward and uncomfortable?"

"Maybe things will be awkward for a while, but that's still better than losing each other. And it won't last forever. I can't tell you that I might someday return your feelings, but eventually you could get over me, or find someone else, or get sick of my perfume, or maybe things will just get easier over time. As long as we face it together, that's what counts."

Privately, Ako still had her doubts, but... "All right." She'd give it a shot, anyway.

"Yay! Now, let's go see what Monika's doing, I'm starving."

Speaking of things Ako had doubts about...

***

"Dinner's almost ready," Monika said as the two came down the stairs. "Natsuki and Yuri went home, but are you staying, Ako?"

Ako didn't even need to look at Sayori to know what she'd prefer. She was much less certain about Monika. Their interactions in the past had been... unfriendly, to say the least. But Monika was giving her a really strange look now. "If... if that's all right."

***

Ako thought the soup Monika had made had been good enough (once she had watched Sayori eating it and figured out the process). The company, though, was somewhat taxing between the weird looks from Monika and the turmoil in her own thoughts from all the things Sayori had said that she still needed to sort through. In the end, she left shortly after she finished eating.

For a few minutes after the door closed behind Ako the other two just sat there, lost in their own thoughts. Then Sayori turned to Monika and said "It looks like you're getting along better with Ako today."

Monika blinked. "Maybe I am," she replied. "I guess when I saw her today I realized something."

"About Ako?"

"Not exactly."

_X Weeks Later..._

"Wait... but I don't like literature, and I'm not in the club..." Ako thought about some of the things Natsuki had told her about video games, and came up with a possible answer. "Am I some sort of secret character? Like the secret route you have to unlock?"

Sayori turned away and seemed to be struggling with something.

Ako's face fell. This was not, she thought, likely to be the sort of reaction that meant good news was coming.

"... You should have been."

What?

Sayori turned back towards her. "You're a wonderful, sweet girl who just needed a little encouragement to show it, and anyone who played our game would have been lucky to get the chance to see your route."

Ako gulped, and felt her face heating up. As she'd spoken, Sayori had gotten closer and closer, and now... "Sayori, you're too- too close!"

"Is it all right as long as I'm not teasing you?" Sayori asked, reaching up with one hand to cup Ako's cheek.

Not teasing, not teasing, how could this possibly not be-!

"Ako... I love you." And then Sayori kissed her.

**Author's Note:**

> The thing that really stuck with me as I thought about this is how similar Monika and Ako are.
> 
> Seriously, just look at their names. Monika = Ako + Min.
> 
> Okay, that's a stupid joke, not serious. (Who's Min?)
> 
> But there's some real parallels between them. Monika sees Ako as being boring, but worries about being boring herself. Both were, in different ways, intended to be just part of the background but broke out of the mold. Both were able to become the person they are now in large part because Sayori reached out to them. (Okay, with Monika it was a bit more of a [tough love](https://dokidokiliteraturegirls.tumblr.com/post/169200122679/hello-everyone-my-name-is-monika-no-last-name) approach.)
> 
> How much of Monika's hostility towards Ako is because she makes Monika uncomfortably aware of how in another life she could have been "monika.obj is a girl who is in the literature club room and encourages the other members to share poems"? And can she really say it's wrong for Ako to feel the way she does without calling her own feelings into question?
> 
> Well, that's the kind of thing I was thinking about anyway. 
> 
> Also, given my obsession with people Just Using Their Words Dammit, I felt like that part of things needed more attention than it got. Sayori at least brought it up, but Ako didn't. As for Monika... well, -blaming- her for it might not be fair, but I can't help but think that if she'd told Sayori that she wanted more "us time" than she was getting that the whole thing might have played out differently.
> 
> A Friend In Love Is A Friend In Need - A line from the song "Know What You Mean" by Sister 7. I've always thought it was saying "A friend and a lover is a friend indeed" though, which... also works quite well actually.
> 
> it was really my own heart I was trying to protect - So why did Sayori ever think the "ignore it and maybe it will go away" plan was a good idea? Well, given the times she's previously expressed feelings of romantic inadequacy, I can definitely imagine her going "Two people in love with me? Nope. I can't handle that right now."
> 
> I can't tell you that I might someday return your feelings - I went back and forth so much on what to have Sayori say here. Just because I'm writing this and I don't write anyone monogamous doesn't mean everyone will return everyone else's feelings eventually or at all. It seemed wrong to not acknowledge that it might happen (especially since, uh, it does), but Sayori wouldn't want to lead Ako on with false hopes either. This seemed like a reasonable compromise for "it's possible, but don't hold your breath".
> 
> get sick of my perfume - Which should not be taken as implying that Sayori wears perfume *now*.
> 
> once Ako had watched Sayori eating - I figure by this point she's moved on from "bite into", but may not have had soup before.
> 
> X Weeks Later... - How much time actually passed between these two events? Hell if I know! I'm just assuming it's long enough to be vaguely plausible.
> 
> You should have been - Most of the time I write by starting with an idea and seeing where it takes me, but sometimes I have a single wonderful moment that comes to me out of nowhere, and then I write the story that leads up to it. This was something of a mixture, but the image of Sayori responding like this was a big part of what made me decide to write this after all.
> 
> And then Sayori kissed her - Well, I didn't say it wasn't still a -bit- of a shipping fic after all...


End file.
